Mark Cavendish pulls out of Tour de France to focus on Olympics

Kristoff thought he won and pumped his fist in celebration, only to learn seconds later he hadn’t. Then it was a insane finale, very technical. “Everyone wanted to be on my wheel”.

“I think the race has been that hard”.

Froome said he did not did feel that the young Briton Adam Yates, who lies third overall, would be a threat when the race hits the Alps later this week. “I was certain I would finish second”. “It’s another day we can tick off and everyone is pretty grateful we’ve got a rest day tomorrow”. (Froome) looks strong. I can’t see him having a bad day, but why not?

However, it was far from straightforward as sprint specialists Marcel Kittel and John Degenkolb survived that late climb alongside Sagan and Kristoff.

“I was lucky I threw my bike”, Sagan said. “Everybody had an interest in the sprint”.

Likewise, Cavendish was mindful of the toll taken by the opening fortnight of the Tour when deciding to pull out now.

However, Froome scuppered talk that he has all but won the Tour, saying: “I don’t agree”.

Colombia’s Quintana only barely lost out a year ago when he finished second and brought home two jerseys, one for being the best rider in the mountains and another for being the best young cyclist. I had a lot of second places. He can do everything.

Cancellara, who has won seven Tour stages in his career and worn the yellow jersey for 29 days, is retiring at the end of this season.

Before setting off on Le Tour, Cavendish surprised most commentators by insisting he planned to ride all the way to Paris, saying: “It was never the plan to stop early”.

Slovak Sagan claimed his third victory of this year’s Tour and seventh in total with the third photo finish of the current race, clocking 4hr 26min 2sec.

“I’m just so happy to be in yellow right now”. “It was a bit sketchy”. “I’m not going to attack for the sake of it. We need to think about all the efforts we are making”.

“Mark is really sad to leave the tour, we are committed to support him in his dream goal of receiving a medal for Britain at the Rio Olympic Games”, said team principal Douglas Ryder.

“I believe that Froome and his rivals are more or less on the same level in the mountains this year”, Unzue said.